MP3 Players Carry Illegal Tunes
June 18, 2008 | by Christopher Nickson
A new study has found that young MP3 player owners have an average of 842 illegally downloaded tunes on their players, far more than anyone would have predicted.
With legal music downloads so big in the online marketplace, you might think the problem of illegal downloads had started to recede into history. But that’s not the case, according to the University of Hertfordshire, which conducted a study among 1,200 participants. 90% own MP3 players, each containing an average of 1770 tracks – but half of those tracks have been illegally downloaded.
The study was commission by British Music Rights (BMR). It all means that those young users average 885 illegally downloaded tracks each on their players. 58% admitted to having copied music from a friend’s hard drive to their own, and 95% copy music in some way.
However, there is some good news from the study, according to former Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey, now Chief Executive of BMR:
“These responses also pull no punches in highlighting how dramatically music consumption has changed, and continues to change; certainly in the case of copying, sharing and recommendation. Technology has greatly increased the value of these activities – but it is clear that the financial gains are not necessarily feeding back to the creators: artists, composers and songwriters. How the music industry repositions itself here, and builds new mutually-beneficial commercial partnerships with technology providers remains the key challenge ahead.”
Post Your Comment...Comments
Corey on Jun 18th, 2008 at 10:50 AM:
I couldnt agree more, this wasnt an issue when people recorded music off the radio on to tape, or shared vinyl. What about reselling old vinyl for a profit? Musicians and bands make their mark not by just the radio, but by hearing the music and getting it for free. If they like it enough, they can go and buy the rest of the album. Point being, people copied tapes forever and now since we can download music, people are surprised that they are doing it illegally?
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Kevin on Jun 18th, 2008 at 9:04 AM:
As soon as a person purchases a digital copy of a song, that person should legally be able to do whatever he/she wants with it; whether that is to share it, trash it, copy it, etc. The amount of this sharing/etc shouldn't be an issue and should actually be looked upon as being a positive aspect of the industry, because the musician's music is getting out to the masses. Isn't this what they wanted to accomplish? The reason artists are doing so well, is because they're making a crapload of money from touring... historically, that's how these people make their money, anyway.